Gee its tough

collectively the big 4 banks only managed to eek out of their customers a meagre 24 billion last year in profit .the knives our out for bankers in the next year apparently, poorbuggers

All the big 4 have overseas trading arms, how much of that profit is generated overseas? not all of it is from your mortgage and credcit cards.

The only industry that just puts up their fees arbitrarily and we have to use them. Tried being paid in cash lately? (was only 20 years ago that many people were, and 30 years ago everyone was).

How about the fact that ATM's were supposed to be free, now it is $2 every withdrawal I make (only one ATM in town).

How about when they sack staff citing costs...... then post an increased profit that year.

That last one is bl00dy disgusting.

Combined with their mandate to create money out of thin air.

Money for centuries was real. With the removal of the gold standard it became a concept. The money we use now is really only an idea, or tokens, similar to pieces in a board game. Only the board game is owned and controlled by the "elite" who use it to give us our reality.

Modern history of money is quite fascinating. When the United States became a republic the memory of European repression, both religious and financial, was still fresh for the founding fathers. So they drew up the Constitution which gave it's citizens freedom that was unique. It's piece de resistance was the issuance of money by the elected government.

This was quite alarming for the financial powers in Europe and was echoed by an article in the London Times in 1865 :

If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North American Republic during the late war in that country, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debt. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.



Since then thngs have obviously changed a tad and the constitution that guaranteed unprecedented freedom is in tatters and the freedom is a ghost of it's former self. They have a central bank, the Federal Reserve, since 1913 and Americans are now enslaved by debt. Their dollar, originally a silver coin based on the Spanish dollar, now a token issued on a concept, is worth one hundred times less just short of one hundred years later.

Any wonder informed people are disillusioned and pissed off. When you get your head around the fact that our democracy is controlled by our "economy", that delightful City of London board game we play for forty plus hours a week, designed and foisted on us by descendants of the same folk who fought so hard and so dirty to take control of the United States.

Yeah, our job got rained off today so I don't get to roll a double six and collect a flat screen tv. I do get to use the NE that I am promised and you know what, I could not give a toss because I have no debt, don't watch telly and have a myriad of exciting things to do which tokens cannot buy!

...and if being "elite" means growing up in a housing estate in the Bronx before becoming CEO of Goldman Sachs then we all have nothing to worry about.

I smell sour grapes.

Sorry mate, opened an account at ABC Bullion and changed all of may spare tokens for bullion. No you cannot have that. No sour grapes either, if anything the opposite. Understanding the situation brings a good deal of satisfaction and, as I said I am not anchored by property or shackled by debt

Soggy, the first bankers were guys who looked after peoples valuables. They gave receipts for it and discovered that they could lend out more than they had in storage providing every body did not want to withdraw their gold at the same time. It got kind of complicated from there on but if you persevere the penny will drop.

What has value? Something rare/unique/hard to replicate/ finite?
Print nice pictures on a piece of plastic... seem pretty straight forward... hell as a teenager I used to scan... hmmm we'll leave it at that... in South America I changed A$ for some doggy US$ at a bank!

Gold can be found in the ground if you look real hard and long... but it's hard work.

I think I'd go for gold.

If was dropped because they couldn't/can't add a 0 to gold to make x10 more.

Japie: I used ABC a while back... go up in the lift place in the city. I saw the NSW premier there with his Chinese wife... Bob something.

Economics 101 - Banks don't print money. Never have and never will.

In Australia the RBA has that role: http://www.rba.gov.au/banknotes/about/responsibility.html



In fact banks are also limited in what they can loan based on a multiple of the amount they hold as deposits.

And as for this...



...sounds like a fair deal to me - banks are not charities last I heard.